As part of a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, Trump teased a series of major issues including the Apple factory discussion with Tim Cook and his front-runners to replace Janet Yellen at the Federal Reserve. During the presidential campaign, he wanted Apple to help bring more jobs in the USA, a promise that the President hasn't yet fulfilled.

If Trump's statement is correct, that'd be a big investment on Apple's behalf and a significant change of pace.

In the first scenario, Apple would get components for the iPhone, such as the memory chip, processor, and display screen, shipped to its hypothetical plants in the USA from around the world and put it together in the plants.

Apple has about 80,000 employees in the U.S. and plans to hire thousands more "in the future", according to Cook. This potential future factory won't be making Apple products, however, even if it does one day materialize.

One of Apple's key assembly partners, Taiwanese company Foxconn, has revealed its plans to open a factory in Wisconsin, but the 10,000-worker facility is only a tenth the size of its China operations.

Mr. Cook also said the company planned to invest at least $1-billion (U.S.) to support advanced manufacturing companies in the United States.

Many have come a long way in extending benefits to their LGBT employees in recent years, and recognise that to not defend political issues related to them could make their corporate policies appear less credible.

Of course, Apple doesn't do any of its own manufacturing, save for some production in Ireland. It has claimed to have created close to 2 million jobs, out of which 80,000 are in the United States while the rest of those figures are contributed by its developers and suppliers.

Cook is said to have asked its main Asian assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron to look at putting plants in the USA.

CNet reminds us that these "big, big, big" plants fall in line with Trump's election promises to return manufacturing to the United States.